UN
No time for complacency as Liberia makes dramatic progress
Encouraging statistics have emerged from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Liberia, namely that 12 of the country’s 15 counties have had no new cases within the past seven days.
According to Assistant Minister of Health and national Ebola coodinator Tolbert Nyenswah, 12 counties (Nimba, Grand Kru, Lofa, Bomi, River Cess, River Gee, Maryland, Sinoe, Grand Bassa, Gbarpolu, Bong, and Grand Gedeh) have completed 21 days without having any confirmed case. The three counties that are still reporting new cases include Grand Cape Mount, Margibi and Montserrado.
According to Nyenswah, the outbreak in Grand Cape Mount has been “localized“ in Teewor. With the presence of an Ebola Treatment Unit in nearbye Sinje, cases can now be quickly identified and contacts traced. He said, five of the 22 zones in Montserrado County are being closely monitored. However, for the last six days that county has not reported any new cases. For more than 90 days, Lofa County, the origin of Liberia’s Ebola crisis and once the epicenter of the disease, continues to report no new cases. The MSF-run ETU in Lofa has been closed.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone all reported their lowest weekly number of cases in months, according to the World Health Organization. Guinea reported its lowest weekly total of new cases since 17 August 2014. Liberia has had no confirmed cases nationally for the final two days of the week ending 11 January 2015. Sierra Leone has recorded its lowest weekly total of new cases since 31 August 2014. The UN Mission for the Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) said this is very good progress but cautions all involved in the fight against the virus to remain on high alert and continue the high intensity of reponse efforts.
WHO Country Representative Alex Gassassira, said, “This intensity of efforts includes social mobilization, continued surveillance, the timely referral and isolation of symptomatic patients and finally, the continuance of safe and dignified burials. As long as we have transmission in any part of the country, the risk remains high.“
Each of the three affected countries now has sufficient capacity to isolate and treat patients, and to bury all people known to have died from Ebola. Still, the uneven geographical distribution of beds and cases, the under-reporting of cases, and the under-reporting of deaths means that not all cases are isolated and not all burials done safely.
The Special Representative and Head of UNMEER, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, says the international community must keep up its commitment until the outbreak is stopped.
“It is not going to be over until it is over and have zero new infections,” he says, “because one case has caused all of these problems. We should not allow one case anywhere.”
In total, 21,373 confirmed, probable, and suspected Ebola cases have been reported in the three most affected countries, with 8,468 reported deaths.
